David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "pride-and-prejudice-rewrite"
Pride
PRIDE is short for PRIDE and PREJUDICE as IbI Zoboi has accepted a world-wide challenge to write her version of a classic. Perhaps the most famous so far is Anne Tyler's VINEGAR GIRL her take on THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
Zoboi sets her version in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn where Yuppies are changing the familiar landscape. The protagonist is Zuri Benitez who lives with her four sisters in an apartment across from a remodeled mini-mansion. A twist on our expectations is that an upper class black family is moving in, and the two boys are really handsome. Her sister, Janae, falls for Ainsley right away. Darius Darcy acts like he's too good for the girls.
So . . . we know what to expect. Zuri is Elizabeth Bennett and she will eventually fall for Darius, who unbeknownst to us already likes her. She finds out for sure when they both make a college visit, she at Howard, him at Georgetown in Washington DC. His sister Gigi also goes to boarding school in Washington DC, a minor plot device. He compliments her on a poem she reads at a college hangout when she notices him in the audience.
Zuri is a proud black American, and she's not about to fall for some boy just because he's rich and good-looking, and she's deeply offended when one of Darius's relatives implies exactly that. Zoboi overdoes this aspect of Zuri's personality. A boy from the projects, with whom she goes on a “not a date” says he's always wanted to “get with” one of the fat a**sed Benitez girls, and she doesn't hand him his head. It's unusual that Zuri is so touchy since Janae, the oldest, doesn't do that at all, nor do her little sisters who are just as boy crazy as a Valley girl. This could be necessary, however, as Elizabeth Bennett was notably head strong.
I liked the fact that the Darcy boys were black and were still considered Yuppi invaders. We know that's the case in some black circles where a lighter shade of skin puts a person higher on the hierarchy or desirability. It's never adequately explained why the Darcy parents picked Bushwick as their new home. They had lived in a smaller house so perhaps it was a matter of affordability. The grandmother, however, lives in what sounds like a mansion.
It's rather hard to keep the character's straight. One of the sisters is away at Duke, and there's also the owner of the apartment, Madrina, who teaches Zuri what sounds like voodoo. There are, after all, originally from Haiti. Zuri also has a sister named Marisol. I still don't know where she fits in the family.
Zoboi sets her version in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn where Yuppies are changing the familiar landscape. The protagonist is Zuri Benitez who lives with her four sisters in an apartment across from a remodeled mini-mansion. A twist on our expectations is that an upper class black family is moving in, and the two boys are really handsome. Her sister, Janae, falls for Ainsley right away. Darius Darcy acts like he's too good for the girls.
So . . . we know what to expect. Zuri is Elizabeth Bennett and she will eventually fall for Darius, who unbeknownst to us already likes her. She finds out for sure when they both make a college visit, she at Howard, him at Georgetown in Washington DC. His sister Gigi also goes to boarding school in Washington DC, a minor plot device. He compliments her on a poem she reads at a college hangout when she notices him in the audience.
Zuri is a proud black American, and she's not about to fall for some boy just because he's rich and good-looking, and she's deeply offended when one of Darius's relatives implies exactly that. Zoboi overdoes this aspect of Zuri's personality. A boy from the projects, with whom she goes on a “not a date” says he's always wanted to “get with” one of the fat a**sed Benitez girls, and she doesn't hand him his head. It's unusual that Zuri is so touchy since Janae, the oldest, doesn't do that at all, nor do her little sisters who are just as boy crazy as a Valley girl. This could be necessary, however, as Elizabeth Bennett was notably head strong.
I liked the fact that the Darcy boys were black and were still considered Yuppi invaders. We know that's the case in some black circles where a lighter shade of skin puts a person higher on the hierarchy or desirability. It's never adequately explained why the Darcy parents picked Bushwick as their new home. They had lived in a smaller house so perhaps it was a matter of affordability. The grandmother, however, lives in what sounds like a mansion.
It's rather hard to keep the character's straight. One of the sisters is away at Duke, and there's also the owner of the apartment, Madrina, who teaches Zuri what sounds like voodoo. There are, after all, originally from Haiti. Zuri also has a sister named Marisol. I still don't know where she fits in the family.
